*November 18, 2025 – 04:11 a.m.**
**Central Military Commission, Deep Underground War Room "Dragon Heart"**
**300 meters beneath Beijing Ruins**
The room was built to survive a direct strike from a planetary-level talent. Walls of collapsed-star alloy, air recycled through nine independent filters, holographic table the size of a football field, and one hundred and twenty of the highest-ranking officers in the Dragon Country military sat around it in absolute silence.
No one was smoking.
No one was drinking tea.
No one dared.
At the head of the table sat Marshal Xuanyuan Ba—white hair, iron eyes, the man who had personally executed three SS-rank rogue awakeners during the Beijing Cataclysm fifteen days ago. His uniform still had faint bloodstains from the last emergency session.
To his left: General Li Wuying, commander of the Awakened Special Forces.
To his right: Admiral Qin Shihuang, fleet commander of the orbital strike platforms.
Behind them, on the massive wall screen, four holograms rotated slowly:
1. Grainy footage of Xia Rou walking out of the burning Sublevel 4 detention tomb.
2. Satellite thermal imaging of Zhaohold Citadel's apex sphere—nine SSS prodigies and nine elders reduced to cooling meat.
3. Zhou Ling's full descent, wings large enough to cast shadows over provinces.
4. A frozen still image of a single crimson-black eye opening in a crystal sarcophagus deep under the Himalayas—Zhao Hu's original soul fragment waking up.
Marshal Xuanyuan broke the silence with a voice like a glacier cracking.
"We have had… fucking… enough."
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. The words hit the table like tactical nukes.
Li Wuying slammed a fist down hard enough to dent the alloy. "Fifteen days ago we were still pretending the 'fragile peace' was worth maintaining. Today a single teenage girl walked into the most fortified clan in human history and turned their future into red paste. Tomorrow Zhao Hu might actually wake up. The day after? Zhou Jun finishes whatever the hell he's doing in the Myriad Tribulation Hells and comes back to find his sister turned into a primordial devil and the girl he once tried to protect is now a walking genocide."
Admiral Qin's voice was ice-cold. "Orbital assets are at 94% charge. We have twelve Apocalypse-class warheads keyed to abyssal resonance frequencies. We can turn the entire Himalayan range into glass in six minutes."
A younger general, face pale, dared to speak. "Sir… the Zhao still have thirty million civilian shields inside their outer territories. Collateral—"
Xuanyuan turned and looked at him.
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
"Collateral?" he repeated softly. "Fifteen years ago I watched Zhao Hu slaughter an entire mechanized brigade because one man took his arm. I watched Zhou Jun detonate his own heart to try and stop him. I watched Zhou Ling sell her soul to thirteen devils because we were too slow to save her parents. And now we are watching a child who was gang-raped and burned alive turn into the fourth horseman because we kept pretending 'stability' was more important than justice."
He stood. Every officer stood with him, chairs scraping like gun bolts.
"No more Equity Acts that protect ancient clans.
No more hands-off policies for 'strategic bloodlines.'
No more letting monsters wear human faces because they might be useful one day."
He placed both palms on the table. The holographic map of Dragon Country zoomed in on the Himalayas, then on Zhaohold Citadel.
"Effective immediately, the Central Military Commission declares the Zhao Clan, the Devil Queen Zhou Ling, the entity known as Xia Rou, and any remnant of the Three Calamities to be **Existential Threat Level Omega**."
He looked around the room, meeting every pair of eyes.
"Rules of engagement: none.
Objective: total eradication or permanent containment.
Method: whatever it takes."
He tapped a single key.
Across the country, every military channel lit up blood-red.
[Emergency Directive 001 – Dragon Heart Protocol]
[All units: Prepare for total war against irregular Calamity entities.]
[Authorization: Marshal Xuanyuan Ba]
[Counter-sign: Full Commission]
In orbit, twelve Apocalypse warheads armed themselves, guidance locked on the coordinates of Zhaohold Citadel.
On the ground, a hundred thousand awakened troops began loading into teleport gates.
In the war room, Marshal Xuanyuan spoke the words the military had waited fifteen years to say:
"This time, we finish it.
No survivors.
No treaties.
No more calamities."
The screen behind him went black.
Then a single line appeared in white:
**Operation: Clean Slate – Countdown T-180 minutes**
The Dragon had woken up.
And it was done asking nicely.